What in professional bookbinding is termed cloth boarding is, as has already been stated, different altogether from leather binding, but in cases where cloth is merely substituted for leather, the earlier steps of forwarding are the same as for half bound books. The edges may be left white, or sprinkled, or gilt; it is merely a question of cost. The cloth cover is carefully cut out to size, glued over, the book laid on it, and the cloth drawn on, just as with leather coverings, pains being taken to secure adhesion everywhere and not to leave blisters. The corners are cut off and turned in as described for the morocco cover. The principal thing to be attended to in cloth work is the state of the glue and the manner of its application. The glue should be very thin and very well frothed, so that it may be applied to the cloth in such a state as to be readily and equally distributed over the surface, with no lumps and no thick or thin streaks. Cloth work is not head-banded, but a fold of the cover at the head and tail is turned in over the fold of the paper lining the back. Sometimes leather lettering pieces are placed on the back of cloth books, but this is rarely done, and generally all lettering, filleting, and other gilding is performed directly on the cloth.

Cloth boarding is the binding adopted for cheap new books, and those who practice it are known as publishers' binders. Many of the processes are nearly identical with those used in leather binding, but the work generally is fragile, and has little durability, being executed very quickly and cheaply. Much of the work is done by machines, the folding being performed at the rate of from 1,000 to 3,000 sheets per hour, according to the character of the work. Gathering is also done with great rapidity by a machine like a revolving table, at which gatherers sit, and as the table revolves each gatherer takes a sheet from the pile as it passes. In gathering by hand, the piles of folded sheets in the order of signatures are laid out on a long table and the gatherer passes along the table, taking a sheet from each pile until a book is made up. After collating (that is, examining each completed book to see that the sheets have .been placed in their proper order), the books are slightly rolled to compress the folds. Cloth books are sewn in several different ways. If sewn on cord, the kerfs are cut with rapidly revolving circular saws, which make all the kerfs simultaneously. But it is more usual now to sew this kind of work on tapes which do not require any saw kerfs. The sewing is performed by women at the sewing press as before described. Books are also sewn by a specially con­trived sewing machine in which a wire thread is employed. Such sewing can be used for ephemeral publications, for which, and for pamphlets and periodicals, it is admirably adapted, but it is not recommended for leather work.

The edges of the books next are cut with the guillotine machine. The backs then receive a coat of glue, and when this is sufficiently dry, the books are rounded and backed, and then lined on the backs with a double thickness of paper.

In preparing the cloth covers or cases the millboards, the cloth, and the stiffeners are cut to the proper size, large quantities being done at one time. The stiffeners are slips of stoutish paper of the length and breadth of the back of the book. The cloth is glued all over, the millboard laid on it and the stiffeners are placed between them in proper position, so as to leave a slight space between its edges and those of the mill board, so that the case will fit well at the joints. The cloth is now rubbed well down on the millboards and stiffener, turned over at all the edges, and the corners are cut off and turned in also. These cases are finished at one operation at the arming press. The lettering and any ornament either for the back or sides or the case, whether gilt or blind, is attached to the platen of the press, which is heated by gas, and can be brought down forcibly by working the handle, some­what after the manner of a hand printing press (see Fig. 101).

In the forwarding shop the back of the book is glued to the back of the case, and the end papers are pasted down to the boards. The books are then put in the press for a time, and when dry are ready for the bookseller's shop.

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